- Wednesday, February 26, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
THE Indian junior hockey team, which has been in superb touch in the ongoing FIH Junior World Cup in Bhubaneswar in the eastern Indian state of Odisha, is set to take six-time champions Germany in the semi-final match on Friday (3) and coach Graham Reid has cautioned his side ahead of the high-voltage clash.
India, who have lost just one game so far in the tournament, defeated Belgium 1-0 in the quarter-final on Wednesday (1) and are just two wins away from registering their second consecutive and third trophy overall.
Despite numerous attempts by the Belgians to break the Indian defence, the Asian side stood robust and never allowed the guard to drop. Reid, a former Australia player who was the coach of the Indian national team that won a bronze at the Tokyo Olympics earlier this year, lauded the colts’ game saying in a press conference, “Our defence was much better in this match than our first game against France. We are doing a lot of work on it. I think they are marking a lot tighter.
I was talking to captain Vivek and the good part is that we can do much better than what we did. Both the goal-keepers did much better but we still have some work to do and we will work on it in the next few days.”
India captain Vivek Sagar Prasad, a midfielder, echoed Reid’s thoughts and gave the latter the credit for instilling in his side calmness to deal with pressure situations.
“It is about staying calm in pressure situations and big matches. The coach said that we need to stay calm and that is what we try to do,” Prasad said.
India goal-keepers Prashant Chauhan and Pawan impressed with their games as they were rotated in every quarter and observers felt they could go a long way to fill the shoes of PR Sreejesh, the national side goal-keeper.
“I do not do selections but both the goalkeepers were very impressive. If they do well in their careers then it will be great. Goalkeeping is about every other position in the pitch, it is about creating competitiveness and getting better,” Reid told Asian News International.
He then cautioned the Indian side ahead of their semi-final clash against Germany.
“You should never ever write Germany off even in the last seconds. They have proven over the time and years that they are a class side especially at this level of competition at the junior world cup. They have won this tournament more than any team by a long way. They won it when I was playing. So, they are a quality team. We played them in the practice match as well,” he said.
Germany beat Spain 3-1 in the penalty shootout in the quarter-final after their match ended 2-2 in the regular time.
India, however, will miss the services of striker Maninder Singh in the semi-final as he has been ruled out of the championship due to a hamstring injury.
“No, I don’t think that his hamstring will be ready as it is a 2-3 week injury, unfortunately. So, Maninder is out for the rest of the tournament,” Reid said.
India started the tournament with a 4-5 defeat against France but thumped Canada 13-1 and Poland 8-2 to storm into the quarters.
France and Argentina will lock horns in the second semi-final on Friday and the final will be played on December (5).
